My Experience on Virgin Voyages as a Foodie and First Time Cruiser

I went on my first cruise ever this winter, and I picked Virgin Voyages for that extra-special first time experience. I needed warmer weather and sunshine. I needed to get away from the winter in Pittsburgh. I haven’t taken a winter vacation in many years. Most importantly, I wanted a trip to go somewhere else to eat too much. If you’d rather see a video recap of my Virgin Voyages experience, the YouTube version is below.

Why Virgin Voyages

In January 2026, I went on a 5-night cruise on the Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady, and it was a fantastic food filled trip. As a disclaimer, I received no compensation from Virgin Voyages. I booked this trip like everyone else. I booked a Black Friday sale for the Virgin Voyages Riviera Maya cruise, leaving out of Miami, Florida, with stops in Cozumel, Mexico, and Bimini, Bahamas at Virgin Voyages private beach club.

The main reason I went on a Virgin Voyages cruise was the food. Virgin Voyages is known for having a great foodie experience. Because of that, I ate so much. The featured restaurants had some amazing dishes like New Zealand Lamb Chops, New York Strip Steak and Venison Tenderloin. The rest of the food in The Galley and fast casual spots was pretty good, too. I had a fantastic cabin with a comfortable bed and a balcony. I had a great time with all the activities I did. I would totally do a Virgin Voyages cruise again.

As I mentioned, it was my first time going on a cruise. I was looking to do a trip that I have never done before. I was trying to decide between a cruise and an all-inclusive resort. I did some research before booking. I settled on a cruise and I picked the Virgin Voyages cruise for two main reasons. The first was the food. I had seen so many reports about how Virgin Voyages had some of the best food in the cruise industry and I couldn’t wait to eat too much of it. The second reason is that Virgin Voyages is an adults-only cruise line. I wanted a trip that had activities that focused on the adult experience and not for families.

I also booked this trip because of the price. I felt I got a great rate on an interior room as a solo traveler. My cost, all in USD, for the 5 nights was initially $1,340. The breakdown is as follows:

• $840 for 5 nights in an interior cabin, including food
• $100 prepaid gratuity
• $300 prepaid bar tab, which came with an extra $50 credit

Then I bid on an upgrade to a Sea Terrace room for $205, which was accepted and worth it. My new initial cost was $1,545.

I booked everything online on the Virgin Voyages website. A recommendation for booking with Virgin Voyages is to book with a First Mate. This is just a travel agent that has an agreement with Virgin Voyages. Sometimes they can get you extra perks, onboard credits, or upgrades. Unfortunately, since it was my first voyage and my First Mate’s first booking, I didn’t receive many additional perks. Only priority boarding. Most of the other discounts I received were offered to everyone. A First Mate may either book everything for you or send you a special link for booking.

I also learned that because I did a “Lock it in” rate, I didn’t get any other perks. If I had paid a normal rate, I would have had the option to upgrade for advanced reservations to restaurants, additional bar tab, and included premium Wi-Fi.

I was also traveling solo, which added to my cost. Most cabin prices are based on double occupancy, except for the limited number of solo cabins. My solo traveler supplement to cover the extra cost of my dual-occupancy cabin was only about $300. From my research, this appears to have been on the cheaper side across the industry.

All this said, my trip became much more expensive, unrelated to Virgin Voyages, when my travel costs to Miami increased due to a winter storm and the Miami Marathon happening the weekend we embarked. My original vacation plan included a flight to Miami using Delta points and a stay in the Arlo Wynwood using Chase points. Virgin Voyages recommends you fly in a day early to avoid any travel issues. However, they do have a relatively late departure time on most voyages, and I probably could have planned to fly the same day if it weren’t for the storm.

Boarding

Virgin Voyages leaves from Port Miami in South Florida. For the date of my voyage, there was a crazy amount of construction and traffic. They are doing a lot of rebuilding at the Port at the time of my sailing. My voyage also left on the day of the Miami Marathon. This added to the traffic with closed roads. The Virgin Voyages terminal is at the beginning of the port, but we had to drive around almost the entire port due to road closures, taking a while in traffic to arrive. There is supposed to be another way to cut some time, but my Uber driver did not seem to know this. There were also many ships disembarking while I was trying to arrive, so we got caught in a lot of the traffic trying to leave the Port. Next time, I might walk across the bridge into the Port or find another mode of transportation.

The boarding process was pretty easy and organized when I finally got to the terminal. I dropped my bag with a porter to be brought to my cabin. You are allowed to carry on if you want. They have lines based on your assigned boarding time. My only perk was priority boarding. I was able to board first. I breezed through registration, where they just reviewed my information and passport to confirm I’m who I say I am. I got my wristband, went through security, and headed to the waiting area.

The wristband is your pass for everything on the ship. They scan it when you board to embark, disembark and re-embark at the ports, and when you buy food or drink not included in the ticket. Everything else is managed through the Virgin Voyages app.

The waiting area is pretty large with lots of seating, including some day beds. Finally, it was time to board. They scanned my wristband and I walked across a gangway to the ship. We enter on Deck 7 into one of the main gathering areas.

The first thing I did after boarding was check the Virgin Voyage app for additional activities I wanted to book. Some activities are not available for booking until after you get on the ship. I wanted to do the Grog Walk and one of the cocktail classes. Neither was available until boarding. The whole voyage schedule is on the app.

Sea Terrace Cabin

I was very excited to get to my upgraded cabin. The Sea Terrace cabin is essentially the middle tier room. It is larger than the interior room and sea view room, and it also has a terrace with a table, chairs, and a hammock. It had a queen size bed that was slightly raised off the floor, which can be converted into a sofa if requested. There was a small desk that I dumped all my tech stuff, and an extra sitting chair, which I mostly just covered with clothes. The cabin had a small closet with hangers, a few shelves and drawers. There were also two pitchers of water in the room and a small fridge.

All the lights and TV in the room are controlled with a tablet that has a charger on the desk. I really liked that multiple lights and mood settings set the lights at different brightnesses and colors. The TV was pretty large, but the entertainment offerings were pretty limited. There were about five channels, mostly news, and then about 50 movies available for viewing. I did watch a couple of new release movies that were not yet available on most streaming services.

The cabin bathroom was a little cramped, but the sink and toilet were adequate. The rainfall shower was actually very nice. Not the biggest shower, but I had enough space as a slightly bigger man. The shower had great water pressure. There was also a handheld shower head that was great for additional rinsing. The toiletry products were also just ok. I used them on the voyage, but if you have specific stuff you like, you might want to pack your own.

The terrace was a great perk. Multiple times on the voyage, I spent time out on the terrace. A couple of times resting in the hammock. A few times, chilling with a new friend. It was also a nice way to start the day to just step out and get a little fresh air. I’m not sure I would plan immediately to get a room with a balcony, but if I can upgrade to one cheaply, it is worth the extra perk.

Each cabin also had an attendant to assist with any needs during the voyage. My attendant introduced himself after I arrived at my room and regularly checked in when he saw me. The room was straightened up once a day, typically in the morning, by the attendant or other staff. They are also responsible for converting your bed to a sofa, if desired.

The Ship

The Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady launched in 2021. It’s not a very old ship. It’s also not a very big ship. There are only 17 decks. While in port, it was dwarfed by other ships. I explored the pool decks while people were still getting on the ship. The ship only has the two pools in public areas and 4 hot tubs. That really wasn’t enough hot tubs. There were a lot of places to lay out on the pool decks and many private cabanas to rent. They have a really cool cargo net to lay out in on deck 16, but unfortunately, every time I went to the cargo net, it was roped off. There is also a track around deck 16 to get some outdoor exercise. There are some pretty great views from the upper decks as well as a lot of fitness areas. The pool decks also have several bars available for drinks and a couple of snack bars.

Inside the ship, many casual bars and restaurants are integrated into the concourses on Decks 6 and 7. There are many sitting areas in these restaurants, providing a casual spot to have a drink or a bite. Each bar and restaurant has a different theme, whether it is Mediterranean, nautical, a swanky champagne bar, or just a casual hangout. You were never too far away from a food or drink item. Most of the food from these shops was included, but fancy coffees, smoothies, or alcoholic beverages required payment from your bar tab. I got started quickly on my voyage, visiting the On The Rocks bar, a cocktail lounge; Draught House, a beer tap house; and Sip Lounge, a champagne bar that made a decent old-fashioned. Many of these bars also host activities such as trivia, performances, and social hours. I also made several visits to The Grounds Club, which was the specialty coffee shop on board. There are also many shops and activities, such as karaoke, the spa, and the casino, around the ship, but I did not spend much time on them. Many shops were high-end retailers and hosted special programs to encourage purchases, including snacks or drinks. I never made it to any of these, even though some sounded fun. 

Activities

The cruise starts with a Sail Away Party as you leave the port. This party happens on the aquatic deck with the pools. I found on Virgin Voyages that there are many dance parties. They hand out champagne to everyone while a DJ plays. At this party, they introduce all the Happenings Cast. These are ship crew members with specific personas to lead activities and events on the voyage. There are 12 Happenings cast members, and you’ll interact with them based on the activities you pick along the cruise. This was the perfect way to set the mood for the voyage as well. You see that the cruise is going to be very intense. I also learned at this point that I was what was called an Extra Virgin Virgin. Not only was it my first time on a cruise, but also my first time on a Virgin cruise. I got to meet a few other solo travelers at the Sail Away party, but I was looking forward to trying to meet some others as the voyage continued.

As a solo traveler, I wanted to meet some people to hang out with on the five day voyage. I started with a Facebook group for the voyage that then led to a WhatsApp group so I could meet people. On the ship, Virgin Voyages has some solo traveler meetups, dinner tables reserved specifically for solo travelers, and non-solo traveler scheduled events to meet people. I did a couple of meet-ups and they were not so helpful. Typically, it was no more than an icebreaker activity. The WhatsApp group was the most helpful as I found a couple of people to hang out with throughout the voyage. I did use the meetup to introduce myself to the Foodie cast member, since I booked the trip mostly just to eat great food.

The best way I got to meet and socialize with people was on the Grog Walk. This was a $50 add on activity led by the Foodie and the Charmer. The Grog Walk is a bar crawl on the ship that takes you to four bars. At each bar, you have an icebreaker activity to meet other sailors on the voyage. After finding someone to complete the icebreaker activity, you earn your drink. I had a couple of good conversations during the Grog Walk, and hung out with some of the people I met later in the voyage. I did realize, though, if I go on another Virgin Voyages sailing, I might just sneak onto the Grog Walk and buy my own drinks with my bar tab.

My Grog Walk ended at the Pajama Party. This is one of the premier events on the voyage. It happens late one of the nights on the Athletic Deck. There’s a DJ and special drinks. Everyone is encouraged to wear their best pajamas. It’s really a big late night dance party with a best pajamas contest. The pajama outfits ranged from loungewear to silk to lingerie. Honestly, this wasn’t one of the activities I was excited for. Since I’m not much of a dance party person, I just made a short appearance and then headed to my cabin for bed. That said, if you love dance parties, Virgin Voyages has one every night.

The foodie related activity I did on the ship was the Shot for Shot cocktail making class. This class is held in the Test Kitchen and led by The Foodie on the Happenings cast and the lead bartender. The class is a $50 add on, and you cannot use your bar tab. We get to learn how to make four cocktails with an elevated twist. After learning to make each cocktail, we got to play with different photo staging areas and photo or video techniques. I was pretty well aware of how to follow instructions to make cocktails and I have a lot of experience taking photos and videos of food and drinks. However, what was really cool was getting to try some things I don’t normally do, like playing with different backgrounds or taking a timelapse video. I did get some really fun photos with the water as the background for the one cocktail. We filmed the entire construction of the old fashioned using timelapse. I think this is a fun activity for someone who might not know how to make cocktails or take food photos as well. I was there to try some different cocktails and see the class experience. I would rather do a different cocktail class in the future. The only other one offered on my voyage was a tequila cocktail class that I wasn’t too excited to try.

The other big activity I did on the ship was attending a show. The ship has multiple shows on the voyage. I went to see Booked! It was an entertaining cabaret about a woman who accidentally gets hired as the ship librarian who dreams of being a cabaret dancer. This was a lot of fun with modern twists on classic songs and lots of aerial dancing. You aren’t allowed to take a video during the performance, so here is a series of photos from the show.

I also attended Scarlet Night for a little bit. This is the signature party of the voyage. Everyone dresses in red. The ship is decorated in red. You learn about the mythology of the Scarlet Lady. There are lots of photo ops and activities around the ship. If I liked dance parties, I think I would have been more excited for Scarlet Night. That said, it can be a lot of fun with all the activities they have planned.

Restaurants and Bars

Obviously, as Alex Eats Too Much, I was most excited about all the food on my Virgin Voyages Cruise. I heard and saw so many great things about the featured restaurants and the rest of the food on the ship that I couldn’t wait to eat and eat and eat. I visited all of the featured restaurants, ate many meals in the galley, and had a couple of bites at other places on the ship. All of the Virgin Voyages ships have most of the same restaurants and food concepts, except for a couple of differences on the newer, bigger ships. Going into this voyage, I actually planned out many of the restaurants and things I wanted to eat on a spreadsheet. There was so much available to eat, I probably only got through a little more than half of what I wanted to eat and drink. I ate all of my featured restaurant meals with one of my new cruise friends. We met before the cruise via the WhatsApp group mentioned above. She had priority reservations for the reservations, so she made sure we were able to get everything we wanted to try.

The first of my favorite meals on my Virgin Voyages cruise was at The Wake. This is the ship’s steakhouse located at the stern. It’s the highest end restaurant on the ship. We were luckily seated in The Wake at a window where we could see the ship’s wake behind us while we ate. I wasn’t doing a good job of spending my bar tab to this point in the voyage, so I decided to do the Macallan Scotch flight with my dinner, featuring a 12 year, 15 year and 18 year scotch. We ordered a couple of the appetizers. One of the nice things about Virgin Voyages, the crew encourages you to order as much as you want to try since it’s included. We got the Hamachi crudo, which was very light and refreshing. We also got the savory roasted beef bone marrow with toasted brioche. We also got the crispy polenta, the French fries and brown butter roasted wild mushrooms to split with our mains. This leads me to my favorite bite of the voyage, the New Zealand Lamb Chops. These were served with a full bulb of roasted garlic and some steak sauces. The lamb chops were a perfect medium rare and tender. I finished this dinner with a chocolate torte.

My second favorite meal of my Virgin Voyages cruise was at Extra Virgin, the Italian restaurant on the ship. This was another restaurant where we went all out with the ordering. The appetizers were fantastic. The beef carpaccio was both refreshing and savory at the same time, if that makes sense. The meatballs were classic and covered in a smoked mozzarella that was a little bolder. The last appetizer was the Crispy Artichoke that lived up to its name, and was very vibrant with the splash of citrus from the lemon. I wanted to try all the freshly made pastas, but settled on just two. The Pappardelle al ragu had a savory bolognese and the pasta had just a little bit of chew. The potato gnocchi were like little delicious pillows covered in mushrooms and a truffle butter sauce. My main was an incredible medium rare porcini-rubbed New York strip with Calabrian chili butter on a bed of farro. Dessert was a nice chocolate cake. Extra Virgin was probably the most well-rounded consistent meal on the cruise.

The most interesting and innovative meal on the Virgin Voyages cruise is at Test Kitchen. It’s multi-course dining experience showing off culinary creativity and experimentation. The restaurant is set up with a large prep area in the center and bar counter style seating around it. However, larger groups may be seated at some of the tables around the restaurant. Test Kitchen has a rotation of three menus. I was there on the first night for menu A, which many people say is the best menu. This was also one of the meals I added on the sip and savor package to get a drink with each course. These dishes were really innovative. The first dish was a mushroom pate that was then shaped into a mushroom. The second course was egg yolk caviar, which was very interesting, basically just peas and egg yolk. The third course was a tasty ham and scallop dish. The winner of the Test Kitchen dinner was the Venison Tenderloin. It was covered in a blueberry sauce and an au jus. The tenderloin was cooked perfectly, the venison wasn’t gamey at all, and the sauces were a nice savory, sweet and tart mix. Dessert was a piece of chocolate cake. Test Kitchen isn’t for everyone, and it was a fun dining experience. It was definitely worth it for that tenderloin.

Another one of the really cool and fun Virgin Voyages featured restaurant meals was at Gunbae, the Korean BBQ on the ship. Gunbae is meant to be a more social restaurant, pairing up people at the giant round tables to share the meal. They also play drinking games with you, offering free shots of soju rice wine for when you get the question wrong. The meal consisted of multiple appetizers and a lot of grilled meat. Each person gets their own tray of banchan pickled veggies. My favorite appetizers were crispy chicken in a sweet chili sauce and the kalbi jjim soy braised short ribs. Those are the must-order apps. The main course is grilled meats and seafood. We started with thinly sliced pork belly. Then it was a trio of seafood: scallops, shrimp and octopus. Finally, we got a giant helping of bulgogi ribeye. The table thought we had too much food, but I helped finish off everything. Gunbae might be tempting to skip, but you should go. I really enjoyed this meal and had a lot of fun.

The last featured restaurant dinner on my Virgin Voyages cruise was at Pink Agave, the Mexican-inspired restaurant on the ship. This meal was good, but not great. I’m wondering if it was just an off night or if we ordered wrong. Many people told me they loved Pink Agave. The guacamole was just fine and so were the potatoes. We did order the potatoes without the chorizo, which might have held the flavor back a bit. This was another restaurant where they encouraged me to just order everything I wanted to try. The first entrée was the ribeye steak with Oaxaca cheese and ancho chili. It was a super tender steak, but so thin it was overcooked. The redeeming dish of Pink Agave was the Pato roasted duck with a mole sauce. The duck was cooked perfectly and the mole was delicious.

A quick note about Razzle Dazzle, the last featured restaurant on the Virgin Voyages cruise. I was not impressed. We went for brunch. My fried chicken sandwich, although super crispy, wasn’t very flavorful. I’ll likely skip Razzle Dazzle on future voyages.

Moving into some of the other meals, I got a late lunch at The Pizza Place. This is the Neapolitan-style pizza place on the ship. All the pizzas are made fresh to order. They are baked quickly in a high heat pizza oven. I got their burrata pizza special and took it to go back to my cabin to eat on my terrace. This was a pretty good, quick meal.

For a midday Mediterranean snack, we went to The Dock House for Opa Hour. They have a limited menu of items only available during this time. I got a variation on a bees knees cocktail. The hummus plate was pretty good, but one of my favorite bites of the cruise happened to be these lamb kababs.

My favorite snack was at Lick Me Till Ice Cream. It’s a great play on words and great ice cream. I never got video here, but got ice cream twice as a snack.

Unfortunately, I never got to order Ship Eats room service. I actually managed to leave my cabin for every meal. I heard the room service was pretty good, but if you wanted meals delivered at a certain time, you needed to remember to schedule in advance. I heard from multiple people who wanted to have breakfast delivered that they forgot to schedule it.

I should also talk about the bars and bar tab on the ship. You were almost always near somewhere that you could get a drink. Each bar had a different theme except for the ones on the Aquatic Deck. The bar tab actually goes a lot further than you might realize, as even though specialty cocktails might be $15 or more each, most cocktails were around $10 and beers were even less. Most of my cocktails on the ship were pretty good. The only ones I didn’t like were my mojitos by the pool.

Port Days

The first port day was in Cozumel, Mexico. I did not book a shore excursion. Instead, I walked around the town and did some of my own activities. Cozumel, right along the shore, is very touristy with lots of souvenir shops. There are some cool landmarks along the shore and just a block away, though. Making my way to some of the streets away from the port, there are more casual and interesting shops and restaurants. The first thing I did was get some coffee. I found on Google Sonata Coffee Roasters, a new coffee shop in town. They roast coffee from Veracruz. I ordered a basic drip coffee and bought a bag to take home. It had a very nutty flavor. Next, I went to Kusam Brewery and Tacos. This was listed as the only craft brewery in town. As a craft brewery fan, I knew I wanted to check this out. I got a refreshing hazy IPA. Getting off the main street was a good choice. Cozumel is a little more laid back and has a lot of history, sculpture and art. My final stop in Cozumel was for lunch at Los Nopales La Quinta, a nicer restaurant a block back from the shoreline. This was a great meal, but a little pricier than some of the other shops in town. The chips with dips, salsa and guacamole were all fresh, vibrant and had a little spicy kick. I ordered a massive chorizo torta with the softest bread. I also ordered two al pastor tacos with some of the best pork I’ve eat on a taco. After lunch, I headed back to the ship to lay out on the pool deck the rest of the afternoon until it started raining again.

The second port day was in Bimini, Bahamas. This is a small port town where Virgin Voyages has its own private beach club. I only planned to go down to the beach club for a bit because the weather was not great when we docked in the morning. The beach club is next to a Resorts World Hotel and Casino. They run free shuttles between the port, a small spot with shops and golf cart rentals, the casino and the beach club. I jumped on the shuttle to the beach club. Much of the crew from the ship works at the beach club, serving food and drinks, with the expectation most people will spend the day there and not on the ship. The beach club is pretty nice with two pools, lots of loungers, cabanas for rent for the day, and a pretty long beach. I was disappointed there were no hot tubs at the beach club. I made my way down to the beach to dip my feet in the water.

After filming a bit at the beach, I wanted to try out the food at the beach club before heading back to the ship. The clouds were still out and it was pretty breezy. They have a special menu at the beach club. The items have some Caribbean flavors, but overall, nothing too exciting. I ordered the rice and beans, the jerk chicken and the red snapper ceviche. It was all pretty good, but I was going to head back to the ship for more to eat. The beach club also didn’t offer conch shell meat, which is an item the Bahamas is known for. You need to go into the small town to get that. I would likely leave some time on my schedule on future voyages to be able to go into the town.

Conclusion

Overall, I really loved my Virgin Voyages trip. There is a video version of the trip on YouTube and embedded below. It was a great first cruise for me, and I was pretty impressed with the Virgin Voyages experience. I ate so much food. I got to do a bunch of fun activities. I met some cool people. I felt relaxed, which was the type of vacation I needed. I’ll definitely go on another cruise sometime, especially with Virgin Voyages.